Pictures from the lake

I had a nice weekend at the lake with my family. Jenny and I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. talking the first night. Chris joined us after a short nap, and we laughed a lot. We got much funnier as the night wore on. On Saturday we enjoyed tubing and riding the SeaDoo, and Seth, Justin, and Don did some wakeboarding. We had a birthday cake for my mom and me, and that night we rode the boat out to the dam to watch the fireworks. I love being at the lake with my cousins in the summer!

I'm really missing Brandon, and wish he could've been there! This article about how he loves coaching was in the Derby paper. I'm thankful that he has a passion for his job and that he's getting this experience this summer. But I'll be very ready for him to come back to Abilene in August!

I chose last weekend to visit Brandon because they had about 6 home games scheduled, but it rained the entire time I was there. The sun never came out, so I didn't see any games, but I did get to spend more time with him eating out, going to the movies, and hanging out with his host family, so in a way I was glad for the rain. Although I am bitter that I missed the most exciting game of the season so far Tuesday night when Brandon was ejected from the game. I would've liked to have been there to see that. Fortunately, it lit a fire in the team and they came back and won in extra innings. This picture of us is at the Old Mill Tasty Shop in downtown Wichita. It's a soda/sandwich shop that's been there since the 1920's or 30's, and whenever I go to Wichita I always like to eat there.

These are some daisies I planted in my garden about a month ago. As soon as I planted them, they all died, and I thought it was just a waste of money, but this week they started coming back, and they're so pretty! I love daisies.

Happy 4th of July!

Last night I went with some friends to cook out and watch the fireworks from the top of McKenzie dorm. We had a great time. It reminds me why I love summer nights and the 4th of July and hanging out with friends. This weekend I'm going to my grandparents' house at Lake Brownwood to continue celebrating the 4th. When I was growing up, I LOVED spending 4th of July at the lake with all my cousins. I haven't been able to go in 3 years because I've been in Wichita with Brandon, so I'm especially excited to be going this year. I'm sure we'll be doing some of our own fireworks displays off of the top of the dock.

O Johnny Boy

Friday night I was fortunate enough to go to the John Mayer concert in Dallas at the Smirnoff. Since I knew Brandon would be out of town, I asked some friends to go. I had told Brandon I wanted to go no matter what. He told me not to go alone, but I said I wouldn't be alone...John would be there! Fortunately, most of the Sheets family came, so I didn't have to watch it alone, but enjoyed their company. We sat on the lawn, but still had a great view. It had rained earlier in the day but by the time of the concert it had cleared off and we had nice weather. John did not disappoint. He was great in concert. And Ben Folds opened for him, playing my favorite song of theirs, "Kate." My pictures of the stage were too far away to turn out, but Sarah got some great ones with her zoom lens, so I might can post some of John later. For now, here we are at the concert.

It's raining right now and dark outside. I love rainstorms in the summertime. I especially love them in the mountains when you can smell the pine and cedar. Before it started to rain really hard I took my camping recliner out on the porch and just lay there listening to music on my ipod and watching the lightning. The song "Merciful Rain" came on right when it started just barely raining and it felt like a reminder from God of his presence. I'm thankful for rainstorms and moments when I feel God so near.

Over the weekend I went to my friend Mary's wedding in Tyler. We did a lot of traveling, but it was so good to be there for Mary's big day and see her in all her bridal glory. We even got there early enough Friday to be entertained by her karaoke performance. Several other of our girlfriends were there too, and it's always great to be together. We made a couple trips to Target, ate out, talked a lot, and played games. We also got to see Jenna's beautiful daughter Reese all dressed up in her wedding attire, and it was good to visit with Jaymie and Christine (we went to Ft. Worth to see her) in person after praying for and thinking of them often.

Since I've been back in A-town, I've started my first graduate class which I am enjoying, spent some time reading at the pool, and had much fun with the cutest 2-year-old around. All in all, it's been a good start to my summer vacation.
Brandon's enjoying coaching again this summer, and I hope he has as good an experience as he did last summer. To read more about it, check out the Derby Twins website. I'm very proud of him!

Welcome summer!

Summer has officially begun! My first year teaching at Abilene High is over, and it was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed my students, the teachers I work with, the curriculum. It was definitely challenging at times, but there's nothing like having it behind you to give you some perspective. My room is completely packed, boxes labeled to be taken to a portable for next year and many things brought home. August will be a fresh start, but until then I will be reading a lot this summer for my English grad. school classes. I'm excited (and a little nervous) about starting them.

This is another pictures of the Sheets twin boys. Brandon's got Levi and I'm holding Will.
And this is Friday, the last day of school for Leah and me. Jennifer was in town for her brother's graduation and Tamara stopped by. It was nice to get to catch up with girlfriends.

apples to apples

No, I don't mean the game. (Although it is a great game. The first time I played we went throuh every single card; sat there till well after midnight...by the way, the game gets much funnier the later it gets.) Anyway, I digress. The title is in reference to the Mac notebook Brandon and I just got. We discovered in laptop shopping that those who we talked to who had Macs were die-hard Mac lovers. We figured we must be missing out on something, so we got one ourselves. I don't think I've used one since the first computer my family bought when I was about 7. My favorite thing about that one is that you could record your own sounds and songs and program them to come on at various times. For instance, when you turned the computer on, you would hear my dad's voice saying, "Somebody stole my...chicken!" (Inside joke, don't ask.) And when you tried to perform an illegal operation, Edie Brickell would warn you by singing "What I am is what I am, are you what you are or what?". There were a few other funny ones, something about the Spanish inquistion...I don't remember exactly. I need some of you die-hard Mac users to show me all the cool things we can do on our computer now. We know there are many cool things to do, we just don't know how to do them yet.

week in pictures

I'll start with the most recent and exciting thing that has happened. Our close friends, Zach and Kara Sheets, had twin baby boys yesterday. They are so sweet. Their names are William Cotton (Will) and Levi Blake.

I happened to be there while Zach changed their diapers for the first time (with the help of Kara's mom). I was holding Will while he changed Levi. As soon as he got Levi situated and swaddled, it was Will's turn. Already these boys have their timing down!

On Saturday morning, I went to the Highland Youth garage sale. A man there had a puppy he was giving away. While I was holding him, the man said, "I'm sorry. I have to go to work. If you don't want him you can give him to someone." So after getting his shots and talking to Brandon (who was out of town by the way, so I called and said something like, "Hey, I'm at the vet with a puppy. Can we keep him?"), we decided to take him in. His name is Toby. We think he's probably part poodle and part terrier.

Unfortunately, ACU baseball season is over. After losing the conference tournament championship game to Angelo State, we found out late Sunday night that the conference committee did not select ACU to go to the regional tournament. This is especially disappointing after the great season they had, setting a record with 47 wins and only 13 losses. They were fun to watch this year. Here are some pictures before and in between games.

Much of the time was spent in rain delays...taking the tarp on and off the field, dragging the field, looking at the storm trying to figure out which way it's going, and of course jumping rope.

Baby Reese and 4 weeks left of school!

I got to meet this sweet little daughter of Jenna and Matt Tuesday. She is adorable, and I'm very excited that they're going to be in Abilene for a few weeks.

After tomorrow there are only 4 more weeks left of school! It's hard to believe that summer vacation is almost here and I've been teaching at Abilene High for a year. Because of construction planned for this summer, I'm going to have to completely pack up my classroom and take most of the boxes home again. They already did construction at Mann the two years I was teaching there, so I have yet to finish a school year where I didn't box everything up and take it home for the summer. I should be a pro at it by now but it still catches me by surprise at the end of the year, so I need to start on that soon.

I am loving the warmer weather and I think I'll take advantage of it and get out in the garden again this weekend. My garden doesn't look that great compared to other houses on my block, but I've discovered it's a good way to meet my neighbors.

I wish I were more of a morning person. I'm jealous of my mother-in-law who goes to the gym every morning at 4:30, and my father who gets up early, makes coffee, reads, and leisurely writes in his journal. I tend to be more inclined to stay in bed until the last possible minute and then quickly go through my morning routine--shower, get dressed, make-up/hair, and go. I skip anything that is not necessary. I would love to wake up on my own without an alarm feeling completely rested early in the morning, quietly read the paper while eating a bowl of cereal or an English muffin, water the garden, and maybe even exercise all before getting to work, but I don't know if it's in me. I've heard that having kids makes you into a morning person whether you want to be or not, but I'll have to wait and see about that theory. As a child in elementary school (and maybe even a few times in middle school, and okay, college) I would wake up during the night and decide to get completely dressed for the day, shoes and all, so that I could sleep later in the morning. I felt like I was cheating my alarm out of a few more precious minutes of lying in bed knowing I don't have to get up right away.


This week I've been giving the TAKS first thing in the morning, so I've had to get to work earlier than I usually do. It's been somewhat difficult, but honestly, I've loved having an extra break in the middle of the day. Usually I teach 2nd through 7th periods straight with only a 30 minute lunch break at 10:45. This week I've gotten to school around 7:15 and get a break at 9:30. I think getting up earlier is worth it for a midmorning breather. Maybe I'm growing up.


This is a picture from our snowy Easter at Lake Brownwood with my cousins. Brandon, Carly, Kasey, Chris, and Jenny...we missed you!

For an update on the friends I mentioned in my last post you can check out these blogs:

http://www.jennacope.blogspot.com/

www.melindagayle.blogspot.com

http://www.thephillipsphamily.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your prayers. I know they really appreciate them and have felt the power of people praying over them.

I love spring weather so much! This is my first time to actually have a garden, and I know nothing about gardening, but my grandmother is amazing, so I hope I inherited some of her genes. (I completely missed out on her cooking genes, but I want to learn how to make her delicious Japanese dishes.) I've spent a few days digging up grass and weeds from the existing garden. It's amazing how deep down you have to dig to get up the roots of just a little bit of grass on top of the ground. My mom got some flowers and delivered them to my house, so I've spent the last couple of nights planting those. Right now they seem so small in the garden, but I'm excited to see what they grow into.

Brandon had his 27th birthday on Friday. They had baseball games scheduled on Friday and it poured, so he got to spend the day taking the tarp on and off the field about 5 times. He was so tired when he got home that we decided to just go out to eat and come back home and watch West Wing on DVD. It was a nice, relaxing evening. We enjoyed going out to eat together and realized it's been a long time since we've gotten to do that. He stays so busy in the spring with baseball. Fortunately, I love going to the games (especially now that it's warmer) and watching the team play, but it also makes me appreciate the time when we can just go on a date together.

I'm still liking my job at Abilene High. It is going by so quickly. I have great students this year; I don't know how next year's group could be better. A nice thing about teaching freshmen is that I'll still see them around school next year. I taught some of these students last year in 8th grade, so I imagine they're tired of me after 2 years and are ready to move on.

I'm looking forward to going to my grandparents' house at Lake Brownwood this weekend for Easter. It's always so good to get together with all the cousins and family. I used to cry when we would have to leave, and sometimes (especially in the summer), my parents would let me go home with my cousin Chris and spend a week with them.

I hope you all have a great Easter holiday and enjoy some time outside!

Prayers for friends and their babies

Babies are born everyday throughout the world, but it really is a miracle to bring new life into the world. I've been praying for 3 of my friends in particular who are on this journey, as well as praising God for other friends and family celebrating the process of pregnancy and birth. Christine is pregnant with her second baby and has hyper-emesis, a condition which causes nausea and severe pain, and therefore she's had to stay in the hospital for an extended period...again. Jenna is about a week overdue, and thankfully, still doing well. We're praying for a healthy birth and delivery of her little girl any day now. And Jaymie, who's been pregnant with twins and due in July, went into labor last night at 25 weeks. The babies were born early this morning and we praise God for medical technology that will allow them to continue to grow and develop outside the womb. Please lift up a prayer for these friends and their little ones to be healthy and strong.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Spring Break

Dad and I had a nice Spring Break trip through Arkansas and Mississippi. Here we are in Square Books, the downtown bookstore in Oxford, Mississippi. It was a great bookstore. Very cool place.

This is Dad in one of the old bath houses in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It's now a museum where you can see how people used to come here for a bath in the healing waters and then work out at this gym (men only of course). What you can't see in this picture are the wooden dumbbells they used.

I reread To Kill a Mockingbird on this trip because my classes are going to start reading it soon. I love this book. I also learned about a similar trial that took place in Mississippi and went to the courthouse where an all-white jury found 2 white men not guilty of the murder of Emmett Till, a black boy from Chicago who was brutally beaten, shot, and then dumped in the Tallahatchie River with a cotton ginning fan tied around his neck for whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. Dad and I also went to Money and found the general store where the alleged whistling took place.

And this is in front of the home of William Faulkner in Oxford. He bought this house shortly after he married and lived here until his death. He wrote the outline for his book, A Fable, on the walls of his office here. To keep his kids from playing on the balcony, he told them stories about how someone died from falling off and their ghost stills sits out there. He also told them there were ghosts haunting the front yard and if he landscaped as his wife wanted him to, the ghosts would move into the house. No doubt the kids helped him convince his wife to leave the yard as is.





We also went to Cleveland where we watched ACU play two games against Delta State, and on our way home we stopped in El Dorado, Arkansas to visit Dad's aunt and uncle.

It's always nice to get out of town for a while and do a little traveling and exploring. It's rejuvenating and helps give me a greater appreciation for home.

Baseball Weekend

Thanks for the advice about laptops. I'm excited to order one soon. I spent the weekend watching baseball games--2 on Friday and 2 on Saturday. So far ACU is 12-0 at home. That's made it much more enjoyable to go to the games even though it's been fairly cold so far. Saturday was sunny, but still cool and windy, so Dad plugged an extension cord into the outlet under the stands, and I had 2 heating pads wrapped up in my blanket to keep me warm. I stayed nice and toasty! When Brandon was playing baseball, I sat with his parents behind home plate. They brought a propane heater and would fire it up and then put it under our legs with blankets over us to hold in the warmth. That also worked great except for one time when we got the blanket a little too close to the heater and it burned a hole in it!

Saturday the team wore their new pants for the first time. They're old school pin-striped baggy pants like Babe Ruth used to wear. I wasn't sure if I would like them or not when I heard about them, but I think they look pretty cool.

Computer shopping

We had Monday off from school for alternate staff development (which I did last summer), and it was so nice to sleep in, leisurely get ready, read a bit, meet my cousins who go to ACU for lunch, work on a project, and enjoy the sunny weather. I love my days off! I realized that this year I haven't taken any days off. I had one sick day and two days I was at a conference instead of school, but no personal days yet! I definitely need to remedy that and plan a day trip to the metroplex or something this spring. I think the past two years I've gone to Ft. Worth for a day or two during school and stayed with Summer and Chad. Now that they're in Abilene, I haven't been to Ft. Worth in months.

I'm thinking about buying a laptop computer. I'm nervous about it because it's a big purchase and I've never owned a new computer. In college, I just always used the computer lab, and since Brandon and I have been married, we've used his parents' old computer. I've been looking online and pricing different ones. I'll probably go with an HP or a Dell. I'll mainly be using it for Word, possibly Publisher, using the Internet, and downloading pictures form my digital camera and music. Any suggestions from you laptop users?

spring time and trips with my father

The weather's finally right for watching baseball games, wearing flip flops, and going to garage sales--three of my favorite things. I'm very thankful for my job at Abilene High, my students, and the teachers I work with. I just pray that God will give me the energy to do my job well and appreciate it.

Dad and I are getting ready for our annual Spring Break baseball trip. The past two years we've gone to Arizona to watch spring training. This year we're going to Mississippi to watch some ACU games. I really enjoy these trips with my dad. They usually consist of listening to some classic rock music and NPR on the road, eating out at a Mexican restaurant, going to thrift and half-priced book stores, seeing something historical (this time the home of William Faulkner), and of course watching baseball. There are also a variety of musical instruments and/or exercise equipment he may pull out of a secret compartment in his Explorer. It is not unusual for him to be driving down the road playing the flute, the harmonica, the drums (with sticks on the steering wheel), or lifting weights. It's always an adventure, and I'm glad it's just a couple weeks away.

The annual MLK weekend girls trip was in Abilene this year, so the icy cold weather added a bit of excitement to our agenda. Most girls were planning on coming in Friday night. To our surprise and delight, Natalie, our friend who lives in Michigan, decided a couple of days before the trip that she and Melaina, her adorable 3-month-old, would come as well. Natalie and Melaina had a long day on Friday as flights were delayed and unable to land as planned. Fortunately her daughter was a trooper throughout the whole trip and Natalie had the foresight to bring a chocolate bar on the plane for stressful moments such as these. (The chocolate being for Natalie, not Melaina.) The girls in Dallas picked her up and they got in to Abilene around midnight.

Jennifer is usually not able to come to these trips because she plans a girls conference in Houston that always comes a couple weeks after our trip. Fortunately for us, she was already in Abilene for a graduate class and decided to stay Friday night and drive back to Houston Saturday. With the icy weather, we even got her for an extra day! Jenna and her husband, Matt, who were driving from Houston left ahead of the storm and arrived to town around 10:30. So Leah, Tamara, and I, the three who currently live in Abilene, spent the evening catching up with Jenn and Jenna and calling the group from Dallas to give them periodic weather reports. Kayci also had a hard time flying in from Houston (and returning), but she was able to make it for Sunday night and Monday.

Once we all got to Tamara's house, we spent the majority of the weekend inside talking, eating, playing games, reading magazines, and watching movies. It was a perfect way to spend a weekend with the girls. We got a little more excitement than we had planned Saturday night when the transformer went down in the neighborhood and we lost power. We started a fire, lit candles, and we were fine except... the burglar alarm was going off and we didn't have a way to stop it other than duct taping pillows over the speakers which we did try. The police officer who came that night was surprised to find 13 girls in the entryway when he walked in, but he was able to disconnect the speaker for us.

We also had a baby shower for the two who are due next--Jenna and Kayci. And took a picture of the 5 pregnant women (one with twins and one who just found out). Overall it was a lovely weekend. We missed Jocelyn, Sara, and Madalyn....hope to see you girls next time!

How many people are in this picture? Actually 11!

These are some picture from our holiday travels. The first three are from the cruise we took with Brandon's parents and their friends, the Wombles. We left from Galveston on Christmas day and had two stops, one in Progresso where we toured the Mayan ruins, and one in Cozumel where we went to the beach and snorkeled. We had a great time and my lucky mother-in-law even won another cruise playing bingo on this one!



And this one is of Ava shaking her booty in Austin. We spent 3 days in Austin with my family after the cruise. For New Year's Eve, we walked downtown from our hotel. They had a great parade, live music, food, and fireworks. At one point a circle of people formed and they were clapping and cheering. We went to see what was going on, and there were kids in the middle of the circle dancing...I mean really getting their groove on! It was so funny! Ava was a little more shy; she didn't go out to the middle, but stood on the outside dancing.

I met Tyler right before we left for Trek in July. Although he and his sister, Gini, did not live in Abilene, they immediately became friends with everyone. Our guides could not pick out which people were not from our youth group. I feel thankful that I was able to spend a week with him on Trek, and I hurt for the Sheets family because of their loss. Please keep them in your prayes in the weeks and months ahead. Praise God for Tyler's life and the people that he touched.

Update

The past few weeks in my freshman English classes we've been reading Romeo and Juliet. I love that play. I hadn't read it in a while before this year, but I love getting the students' first reactions to it. My fifth period class has decided Romeo is emo (which is a stereotype that didn't exist when I was in high school so I had to have it explained to me). My favorite thing to hear is when they're disappointed when we have to stop because they want to keep reading and find out what happens. I think I have a special group of kids this year...I like them a lot and they make it worth coming to school on days when I don't feel like it.

I'm thinking about starting grad school this summer in English at ACU. Brandon gets a family discount but only for 3 hours a semester. Since I'll still be teaching while in grad school, that's probably the most I would want to take at once anyway, but at that rate it will take me about 3 years to finish. I hope I remember how to be a good student. It's weird that I feel old when I go on ACU's campus now. I expect to run into people my own age and instead see my cousins who were in middle school when I was in college. 4 of my cousins are at ACU now and have lunch together once a week. One of these days I'm going to take a day off of work so I participate in Cousins Lunch.

I'm ready for Christmas break. First we're going on a cruise with Brandon's parents and family friends, then we're going on a trip to Austin with my family. I'm looking forward to lots of time to relax, read, and be with family.

My girlfriends are planning our annual MLK weekend trip together. This year everyone's coming to Abilene. I'm really excited about catching up with everyone because a lot has been going on in our lives. There are new babies, pregnancies (even twins!), jobs, moves, and healing...so much to talk about!

Any good gag gift ideas? I've got 4 Christmas parties in 3 days next week and each one involves a gag gift exchange. So I'll probably be doing my Christmas shopping tomorrow at garage sales and Goodwill. Maybe I'll find some great, obscure, unique gift for my Dad while I'm at it.

Snow Days

Yesterday morning, this friendly duo knocked on my door to wish me a Happy Snow Day! I think students and teachers share the same excitement when it comes to school being cancelled. It's a great feeling to get up at 6:30 and then realize you can go back to bed. I celebrated the first snow day of my teaching career by playing with Ava and watching old episodes of Grey's Anatomy with Summer during Ava's nap. It was a great day!